• [Nature of science: Grades 13-16] Scientists can test ideas about events and processes long past, very distant, and not directly observable.
• [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] Scientists use multiple lines of evidence (including morphological, developmental, and molecular evidence) to infer the relatedness of taxa.
• [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] Classification is based on evolutionary relationships.
• [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] Evolutionary trees (i.e., phylogenies or cladograms) portray hypotheses about evolutionary relationships.
• [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] Evolutionary trees (i.e., phylogenies or cladograms) are built from multiple lines of evidence.
• [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] The principle of parsimony suggests that the phylogenetic hypothesis most likely to be true is the one requiring the fewest evolutionary changes.
• [Studying evolution: Grades 13-16] Evolutionary trees can be used to make inferences and predictions.

There are no NGSS/DCI concepts currently linked to this resource.

Students can read this tutorial for a review of phylogenies and tree-thinking.

• Classification/Phylogenetics